O.J. Mayo Learned the Hard Way Why You Should Never Talk Trash to Michael Jordan (Video)

This week, Michael Jordan made headlines when he said, in a promotional interview for NBA 2K14, that he could have beat LeBron James 1-on-1 in his prime. However, in that very same interview, he also told a story about Bucks guard O.J. Mayo that raised a few eyebrows.

According to Jordan, Mayo attended his basketball camp as a high schooler and, during a scrimmage, talked trash at him the whole time. Right there in front of everybody. So how did Jordan respond? Well, right in the middle of the game, Jordan shut the camp down and sent everyone to bed. Then the basketball legend, in his mid-40s at the time, taught Mayo a lesson on the court.

Sounds kind of crazy, doesn’t it? A high school kid talking trash to Michael Effing Jordan? It’s almost unbelievable. I mean, who would do that?

However, Jordan was not lying. It turns out somebody who was there that night in 2006 recorded the whole thing and, after the story went public, that person sent the video to Larry Brown Sports.

Take a look:

And if that’s still not enough to convince the story is true, maybe you’ll believe O.J. Mayo. After the Jordan interview and the video came out, he did an interview himself with BucksTV, confirming the whole thing.

Here is his account:

I happened to be the only high school player [at the camp]. It was mainly freshmen in college. So [Jordan] came on the court and he guarded me, so instantly I thought, ‘man, he must think I’m not the strong link over here.’ I got it going a little bit. Obviously it’s any ballplayer’s dream to play against Mike. I couldn’t tell you how many times I did his move.

I got a few buckets and I think the campers knew I was only a high school kid, so they got rowdy a little bit. We got a little bit of jawing. We played two games — it was a team game. I think we split one and one. And then he said ‘OK, now let me handle my business.’ And he looked me in my face and I said ‘whatchu mean?’

He said ‘I need all the campers and everybody to leave. Let’s clear the gym.’ And I said ‘oh man.’

So we continued playing pickup, and Mike was Mike. He was jawing a little bit and really getting into me defensively. He was backing me down and said ‘you better scream for momma. Momma, momma!’

He hit the famous fadeaway on me. So I said ‘OK, OK, you got it going.’

And then he said, ‘Fella, let me tell you something. You may be the best high school player in the world, but I’m the greatest ever. Don’t you ever disrespect the great like that!’

The lesson here? Don’t talk trash to Jordan. Ever.

Of course, 99.9% of the world’s basketball-loving population already knew that.

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